Tulsi Prajna 1992 04

SR No.: 524570
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Parmeshwar Solanki
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1992
Total Pages: 130
Language: Hindi
Classification: Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India
File Size: 6 MB

Page 113

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Vol. XVIII, No. 1 ultimately. The other known as Bhāgirathi and later Hooghly flows through West Bengal to the sea, To accept the interpretation of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee means inculding Tamralipta (in what is the district of Midnapore now) in GANGĀRIDAE but excluding the whole of Bengladesh and the easiern part of Murshidabad and the districts of Nadia, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Calcutta totally. Scholars both in Bangladesh do not like the idea of excluding Bangladesh despite pulling GANGĀRIDAE so far. That is what necessitates placing GANGĀRĀSTRA on the east bank of the Bhāgirathi and PRACHYA-RĀSTRA on the western bank of it. Authors of north Bengal are not satisfied even with that and, therefore, they seek 'Gaudiya' in GANDARDAI. GANGĀRIDAI' cannot be derived from GANGA-RĀȘTRA in fact. Nor can we derive GANDARDAI from GAUDA or GAUDIYA. Transformation of 'au' in latter words into 'a' and appearance of 'n', 'ra' and 'da' in the GANDARDAI demand explanation and nobody free from prejudices would admit theories like that.
In their zeal to glorify their land such scholars do not bother to think why a ruler of Bengal would bother to confront a foreign army as soon as it crossed the river Beas and proceeded towards the Gangā. If it is argued that the kingdom of Xandrames extended up to that point, a number of questions arise. Is the fact that part or whole of Bengal was included in his kingdom enough to establish that Xandrames hailed from Bengal ? What is there to prove that the army of a kingdom that extended from Bengal to Haryana consisted of the Bengalis only? And finally if Xandrames' army included nonBengalis, who are expected to be deployed against the foreign invader on the western border at a time when there were no railways and no aircrafts-soldiers from Haryana and Uttar Prndesh or those from Bangladesh and W. B.? So the boast of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and followers that Alexander's army retreated for the fear of the Bengali army is simply ludicrous and false to the core.
We have seen earlier GANGARIDAI mentioned in the quotations from DIODORUS, CURTIUS and PLUTARCH. Now let us see what Solinus says- The least breadh of the Ganges is eight miles, and its greatest twenty. Its depth where it is shallowest is fully a hundred feet. The people who live in the furthest. Off part are the GANGARIDES, whose king possesses 1000 horse, 700 elephant and 60,000 foot in apparatus of war,”21 And Diodorus remarks : "Now this river (Ganges), which is 30 stadia broad, flows north to south, and empties its waters into the ocean forming the eastern boundary of the GANGARIDAL a nation which possesses the greatest number